Trust deficit the biggest problem: Manmohan

NEW DELHI: Trust deficit is the biggest problem with Pakistan and no progress can happen in negotiations unless this issue is addressed, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Monday.

”Trust deficit is the biggest problem,” he said at the first major press conference to mark the first year of the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government.

”It is my conviction that … why we haven”t been able to make headway in composite dialogue is that there has been lack of adequate trust,” he said.

Singh said trust deficit was identified as a core issue when he met his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani in Bhutan last month.

”We agreed that trust deficit is a major problem blocking progress in the direction of going forward and that it should be our common endeavour to reduce the trust deficit. That”s we agreed that the foreign ministers should meet,” he said.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is scheduled to meet with his Pakistani counterpart in Islamabad July 15.

India had stopped the composite dialogue process with Pakistan after the terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008.

”I am hopeful that this process can move forward. At least, that is the message that I got from talking to the Pakistan prime minister,” he said.

Singh said it was his ”firm belief” that India cannot realise its full potential unless ”we have the best possible relations with our neighbours, and Pakistan happens to be our largest neighbour”.

President pardons convicted Rehman Malik

A bench of Lahore High Court earlier during the day dismissed an appeal by Interior Minister Rehman Malik against his conviction in two corruption references and restored a three-year imprisonment awarded to him but President Asif Ali Zardari exercising his special powers has pardoned him.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Baber informed that President Asif Zardari has granted pardon to Rehman Malik under the authority conferred upon him by the Article 45 of the Constitution. He added that the President pardoned the sentence on the advice of the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
According to sources, the summary for the pardon was prepared by the law ministry.

Zardari will continue to pardon aides: Sethi
Senior analyst Najam Sethi speaking to Dunya news said that the courts would continue to sentence criminals and President Zardari would continue to exercise his power and grant them immunity.
He added that even if the Supreme Court convicts presidents close ally Babar Awan for the NRO case president Zardari would also condone his punishment.

Add”l DG FIA arrested, sent to jail

ISLAMABAD: Additional DG FIA Ahmad Riaz Shaikh has been arrested from courtroom and sent to Adiala jail after the six-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, restored his conviction in a corruption case for five years imprisonment and Rs 20 million fine.

PPP secretary information Fouzia Wahab while talking to Geo News said Ahmed Riaz has served his conviction and PPP will file an appeal against the decision.

He was taken into custody from the courtroom as ordered by Supreme Court, Geo News reported.

According to the details, six-member bench of SC restored the conviction of Ahmed Riaz Sheikh and ordered NAB to seize his assets and submit report within three days.

On Monday, SC gave the bureaucracy 24 hours to explain the appointment of Ahmed Riaz Sheikh in the FIA in violation of its verdict that had revoked the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Nancy Kissel

HONG KONG : Nancy Kissel, Hong Kong’s highest court on Thursday quashed the conviction of housewife Nancy Kissel, jailed for life for murdering her banker husband by feeding him a spiked milkshake and clubbing him to death, and ordered a retrial.

The appeal court verdict marks a dramatic reprieve for the American, whose 2005 trial riveted the territory with tales of rough sex, marital violence and adultery.

“The court unanimously allows the appeal, quashes the conviction and orders a retrial,” said Chief Justice Andrew Li at the Court of Final Appeal.

Kissel, dressed in black, broke down in tears after the judgment was read out in the wood-panelled courtroom, while her lawyers pumped their fists in celebration.

Kissel had admitted killing her husband Robert, a high-flying banker at Merrill Lynch, on Nov. 2, 2003, but pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge that requires premeditation.

After several years in prison and a failed appeal in a lower court, Kissel arrived in a wheelchair and appeared downcast as a large press contingent scrimmaged around her.

“Nancy is very frail, emotionally and physically,” said her defence lawyer Simon Clarke after the judgment was given by the five-member panel of judges. “She is obviously very delighted.”

REMANDED IN CUSTODY
The court remanded Kissel in custody pending the retrial, though several of her supporters said they would help her post bail if an application was granted by the retrial judge.

“We hope to see her tomorrow,” said Nancy Nassberg, a long-time friend. “Her body is weak, but she continues to fight and support victims of abuse.”

The so-called “milkshake murder” case engrossed Hong Kong, offering a rare glimpse into the high-living lifestyle that some foreign professionals enjoy in the former British colony.

Prosecutors said Kissel gave Robert, 40, a milkshake spiked with a “cocktail of drugs” before cracking his skull several times with a heavy statuette. Kissel tried to dispose of his body by rolling it up in a carpet and putting it into a storage room.

They said Robert had been planning to divorce Nancy and wanted custody of their children after discovering she had an affair with a TV repairman in the United States.

In quashing Kissel’s conviction, the judges described the lengthy trial as complex and riven with conflicting evidence. Kissel had argued that she was protecting herself after her husband tried to attack her with a baseball bat.

“Mrs. Kissel killed Mr. Kissel. That much is not in dispute,” the judgment said. “But was the killing certainly murder or might it have been in self-defence?”

The judges also questioned whether the seven-person jury that convicted Kissel in the original trial may have been misdirected, given Kissel’s argument that she had laced a drink to simply try to calm her husband, rather than as part of a plan to kill him.

“The miasma of those impermissible points was left to hang over the jury’s deliberations,” the judgment added.

Kissel’s lawyers maintain she was provoked into the killing and acted in self-defence after suffering years of domestic abuse.

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Nancy Kissel was first posted on February 11, 2010 at 12:19 pm.

Philippe Padieu updates

Philippe Padieu news updates :- Philippe Padieu’s cruel story was featured on The Oprah Show earlier today.Philippe Padieu who is currently serving 45 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon was also accused by over 30 women of exposing them to the HIV virus without their knowledge.The five women who talked to Oprah revealed that they dated Philippe Padieu between 2004 and 2007 and explained that that they went with him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases but he would always come out of the medical building and looked them right in the eye and say negative.

Many of the women that Oprah interviewed stated that they went with Philippe Padieu, 53 to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, and that Padieu came out of the medical building and looked them right in the eye and said negative. None of the women asked to see a physical copy of the test results.

Each of the women dated Philippe Padieu between 2004 and 2007, and many of them were in their 50s and had recently divorced after being married for many years, and had recently been reintroduced to the dating scene when they met him. Some are grandmothers, and mothers, and some of them did not give their name.

Diane Reeve, 58 was the leader in gathering evidence for a trail. She was able to obtain the phone records of Philippe Padieu and contacted 23-26 women who confirmed that they also slept with him. Some of those women were tested and they were also HIV positive.

Philippe Padieu was sentenced to 45 years in prison in May of 2009 with six counts of aggravated assualt with a deadly weapon, and won’t be eligible for parole for 22 years.  Padieu will then be in his 70s. Philippe Padieu has appealed his conviction.

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Philippe Padieu updates was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 8:26 am.